Pending in North Country
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Creamer Hill Road: 81 acres (10 lots), started at $39.5 million in September 2023 and is currently priced at $24.750.
The property has an interesting history from back when it was known as 100 Sterling Road:
To sell a house where a murder occurred, agents face unique challenges: ‘Not just economics ... It’s emotion.
GREENWICH — It’s an extraordinary estate: A 22,000-square-foot home, tucked away on a wooded 84-acre property on Sterling Road, the remote northwest corner of Greenwich near the border with Armonk, N.Y. It has a gym, a 5,000-bottle wine cellar, full-size bar, lounge and game room. The jaw-dropping list of amenities includes an indoor lap pool and an outdoor pool, tennis courts and basketball courts, a baseball diamond and organic gardens.
It’s a stunning backcountry hideaway, and one that comes with a steep, $35 million price tag.
For any property at that price point, there’s a limited pool of buyers out there. For 100 Sterling Road, in particular, the site of Greenwich’s last murder, in 2009, that pool may be even smaller.
The property was listed for sale in May on Zillow, but was taken off the market this week. It’s unclear why.
According to the Town Assessor’s office, the property was purchased in 2009 by S. Donald Sussman, a hedge fund executive, and then transferred to 100 Sterling Road LLC., the entity that is connected to another Sussman property, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
But for any property where a violent crime has occurred, like 100 Sterling Road, one question lingers when entering the real estate market: How much does the gruesome history of a home impact its market value?
Do memories fade?
Police arrived at 100 Sterling Road, on the night of Dec. 30, 2009, to find Amanda Dobrzanski dead in the an auxiliary building on the estate.
The 20-year-old recent Greenwich High School graduate’s father, Adam Dobrzanski, a live-in caretaker at the estate, was found with self-inflicted injuries, but survived and, ultimately, pleaded guilty to murder. He was sentenced to 40 years for the slaying.
The murder is one of just two occurring in Greenwich in the last dozen years. It got an abundance of local — and some national — press. And it arguably left a stain on an otherwise palatial home and extraordinary property in Greenwich’s backcountry, as similar events do on homes throughout the country.
Randall Bell, a California-based specialist in valuing properties deemed undesirable for reasons not related to the physical condition or features, has told the Los Angeles Times that properties on which a murder has occurred typically sell for a discount of between 10 percent to 15 percent on the low end, and 25 percent on the high end. They also tend to stay on the market longer.
Many variables can potentially affect the price. How long ago was the murder? Did it happen in the living quarters of the property or an auxiliary building?
“I guess it also depends on how the murder was reported,” said John Engel, co-founder of the New Canaan-based real estate group the Engel Team and chair of the New Canaan Town Council. “Was it a particularly graphic story in the papers? Did it make it to national TV?”
In Connecticut, state statute does not require a real estate agent to disclose a homicide that occurred at a property for sale, so media coverage can play a major role in alerting potential buyers.
The Dobrzanski murder did not get the same kind of national attention as, for instance, the disappearance of Jennifer Dulos, a New Canaan resident of whom the husband, Fotis Dulos, was the suspected killer. And the Dobrzanski murder and subsequent trial are both nearly a decade in the past.
“Over time memories do fade for all but the most notorious crimes,” Engel said. “Yes, they should expect a discount because some buyers draw the line and will not consider these houses at any price. It’s a much smaller buyer pool.”
…. In the case of Sterling Road, Oshrin said, there is already a small pool of buyers for a property listing at $35 million. That pool may only shrink because of what transpired there in 2009 and some may patiently wait for that number to come down.
